Relations between Bulgaria and the United States were first formally established in 1903, have moved from missionary activity and American support for Bulgarian independence in the late 19th century to the growth of trade and commerce in the early 20th century, to reluctant hostility during World War I and open war and bombardment in World War II, to ideological confrontation during the Cold War, to partnership with the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and growing political, military and economic ties in the beginning of the 21st century.
According to the 2012 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 32% of Bulgarians approve of U.S. leadership, with 16% disapproving and 52% uncertain.U.S. Global Leadership Project Report - 2012 Gallup
History of relations
In 1892, the representative of Bulgaria in Constantinople held the first talks with associates of the US legation there. The negotiations were completed in 1901, when an agreement was reached between the two countries for the US minister plenipotentiary in Constantinople to also be accredited in Sofia.Български дипломатически представителства в Америка
The Principality of Bulgaria and the United States established diplomatic relations in 1903. The US minister plenipotentiary for Greece, Romania, and Serbia was also authorized for Bulgaria. He presented his credentials to Prince Ferdinand in Sofia on September 19, 1903. On September 22, 1908, Bulgaria declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire. On May 3, 1909, the US secretary of state sent a telegram to Hutcheson, acting diplomatic representative for Bulgaria, informing him of the order of the US president to convey his congratulations to King Ferdinand on Bulgaria's admission to the community of sovereign and independent countries. With this act, the United States recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Bulgaria.History of the U.S. and Bulgaria's Relations
On December 10, 1914, Stefan Panaretov was appointed Bulgarian minister plenipotentiary in the United States. The Bulgarian legation in Washington was officially opened on January 16, 1915.
Under pressure from Germany, Bulgaria declared war on the United States on December 13, 1941. Bulgaria's ambassador to the United States, Dimitar Naumov, learned about the war from the newspapers. Convinced that this was a mistake, Naumov in an open telegram demanded a rebuttal from Sofia and said that "rumors of a war are more than incredible and comical" and that in the United States it is considered incredible for Bulgaria to declare war on the States. Minister Plenipotentiary George H. Earl III left Sofia at the end of December. The United States declared war on Bulgaria only on June 5, 1942.
In 1945, by virtue of an agreement to establish an Allied Control Commission in Bulgaria, on October 17, 1945, General Vladimir Stoychev was sent to Washington as a political representative of Bulgaria. After the entry into force of the Paris Peace Treaty in September 1947, diplomatic relations were restored, but only three years later the State Department froze diplomatic relations with Bulgaria. The reason is that in the early 1950s, the Bulgarian government accused U.S. Minister Donald Heath of espionage and declared him persona non grata. The United States and Bulgaria agreed to resume diplomatic relations on March 24, 1959 after the Bulgarian authorities had issued a formal apology in the Heath case.
From first contacts to 1919
American missionaries and schools in Bulgaria The first contact between Americans and Bulgarians in the early 19th century was through American books and American missionaries. The first American literature to be translated into Bulgarian was Benjamin Franklin's introduction to Poor Richard's Almanack, "The Way to Wealth", in 1837. In 1839, a Protestant religious society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, sent the first Protestant missionaries to the Ottoman Empire, where the Ottoman Government had given them permission to preach to the Christian population. One of these missionaries, Elias Riggs, learned Bulgarian and published the first guide to Bulgarian grammar for foreigners in 1843. By the end of the 1850s, American missionaries had printed and distributed a version of the Bible in the Bulgarian vernacular. Charles Morse published a full textbook of Bulgarian grammar in 1860, and compiled the first Bulgarian-English dictionary.
In 1860, the first American school (today called the American College of Sofia) was founded in Plovdiv by missionaries from the Congregational Church. Besides Bible instruction, it taught mathematics, chemistry, physics, and the English language. In 1863, a school for young women was opened in Stara Zagora. The two schools merged and moved to Samokov in 1869. The American School of Samokov offered an American-style education, taught in English to the Bulgarians.
Robert College, a branch of the State University of New York, also played an important part in educating the new Bulgarian elite. It opened its campus in Istanbul in 1863, teaching mathematics, natural history, economics, logic, political history, international law, philosophy, and the English language. By 1868 half the student body were Bulgarians. Two future Prime Ministers of Bulgaria, Konstantin Stoilov, Todor Ivanchov studied there. American missionaries also founded the newspaper Zornitsa, which published for seventy-six years, with articles on science, history, and the theory and practice of western democracy. The model of the American Republic was frequently discussed by Bulgarian intelligentsia as one model for an independent Bulgaria.
The Protestant missionaries had limited success in Bulgaria. Their work was opposed by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and by many leaders of the Bulgarian national-liberation movement, who did not want to see Bulgaria divided by religion, but the schools and newspapers founded by the missionaries contributed to the Bulgarian National Awakening and the American missionaries who returned to the United States often became unofficial diplomats for Bulgaria.
American diplomats, journalists and Bulgarian independence
In April 1876 (May by the modern calendar), a group of Bulgarian nationalists led an uprising against Ottoman rule in the area in different parts of the country. (See April Uprising.) The uprising was badly planned, equipped and led, and failed. It was followed by savage reprisals and massacres carried out by Turkish regular and irregular soldiers. Bulgarian students at Robert College in Istanbul brought the stories of the massacres to the attention of Dr. Albert Long and the acting president of Robert College Dr. George Washburn, who wrote letters to the Istanbul correspondent of the London Daily News Edwin Pears. On June 23 Pears wrote the first article about the "Bulgarian Horrors". The article led to inquires in Parliament, and Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli called for a formal investigation.
The American Consul General in Istanbul, Eugene Schuyler, traveled to the Bulgarian territories of the Ottoman Empire in July and August 1876 to investigate the reports of atrocities and massacres. He was joined by an American journalist Januarius MacGahan, on a commission for the London Daily News. MacGahan wrote a series of vivid articles about the massacres, particularly about what had happened in the Bulgarian village of Batak, where MacGahan reported that the entire village had been massacred. These reports, carried in the British and European press and later printed as pamphlets, caused widespread anger against the Ottoman Government. In November 1876, Consul General Schuyler and Prince Tseretelev published their full report, estimating that fifteen thousand Bulgarians had been killed in the aftermath of the uprising. (A report by British diplomat Walter Baring at the same time put the number at twelve thousand.) In addition to describing the reprisals and massacres, it contained the first map of the Bulgarian population in the region.
The Russian Government demanded reforms by the Ottoman Government to protect the Bulgarians and other nationalities within the Ottoman Empire. When the Ottoman Government refused, the Russian Empire declared war on Turkey. In 1877, the Russian Army moved through Romania, crossed the Danube and defeated the Turkish Army, after costly battles at Pleven and Shipka Pass. (See the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and History of Bulgaria.) The advance of the Russian Army was covered by MacGahan and other journalists for the British press.
The American public, largely thanks to the reports of MacGahan and American missionaries in Bulgaria, was sympathetic to the Bulgarian cause. The Turkish Government accused Consul-General Schuyler of bias toward the Bulgarians and breach of diplomatic practice. He was withdrawn from Istanbul by the U.S. Government in May 1878.
With their army defeated, The Ottoman Sultan was forced to sign the Treaty of San Stefano, which granted extensive territories to a newly independent Bulgaria. However, the British, German, and French governments refused to recognize the new Russian-sponsored state. In 1878, the Treaty of Berlin, drafted largely by German chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, drew a new map of Bulgaria which returned parts of eastern and southern Bulgaria as well as the whole geographical region of Macedonia to Turkey, gave the Dobrudzha (also Dobruja) region along the Danube to Romania. The Berlin Treaty created the Principality of Bulgaria, nominally under Ottoman rule. Prince Alexander of Battenberg, nephew of King Alexander the Second, became the first Prince.
The loss of lands which Bulgarians saw as part of their homeland was bitterly resented in Bulgaria. The re-uniting of these territories to Bulgaria became the major objective of Bulgarian foreign policy for the next sixty years.
American isolationism and tentative diplomacy
America and Bulgaria had little diplomatic contact in the nineteenth century, but it did have commercial and cultural contact. Bulgaria had a modest participation in the 1893 Chicago Exposition. The Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov visited the exposition and wrote a book, To Chicago and Back, in which he presented America as a technological leader and a land of opportunity. The book made a strong impression on the imagination of many Bulgarian intellectuals, and shaped their image of America.
In 1887, the Russian Government, which suspected Prince Alexander of liberal tendencies, organized a coup in Bulgaria. Alexander went into exile, and the Bulgarian government chose a German prince, Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, as their new ruler.
The United States made a tentative attempt to establish diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1901, but the diplomat named by Washington was rejected by the Bulgarian Government, since he was based in Istanbul rather than in the principality.
Finally, on September 19, 1903, John B. Jackson, U.S. Special Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary to Greece, Romania and Serbia, presented his diplomatic credentials and his accreditation letter from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to Prince Ferdinand. At his Palace in Sofia, Prince Ferdinand gave a toast to President Roosevelt in English, and a band played American music, but the U.S. still did not fully recognize Bulgaria as an independent nation, since it was still by treaty a principality under Ottoman sovereignty.
In 1908, when the Great Powers were distracted by the annexation of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary, Prince Ferdinand declared that Bulgaria was a fully independent state, and proclaimed himself King. Shortly afterward, President William Howard Taft offered full diplomatic recognition to Bulgaria.